I found this European take on America’s civil crisis interesting

[Totem Polar]

From the Euro-journalism effort new europe/Our world comes this look at the politics of today’s America:

https://www.neweurope.eu/article/ame...-civil-war-ii/

Ex.

At present, very few people understand what kind of situation the world is getting to. The general panic caused by the virus was just the excuse to trigger a large-scale evolution, which for the time being remains under the radar, due to the fact that it is only the very beginning. The reasons can be summarised by the unbridgeable social gaps generated by periods of prolonged austerity, extended overregulation, the ever-increasing politically uncontrolled powers of administration and a scarcity of true political leaders.

And

The two big political parties in the United States are close to the end of their shelf-life, and new situations will emerge in the not-so-distant future. Throughout most of their history, Americans were moderately divided between Democrats and Republicans during the election campaign. The day after the election, all Americans were united under the new president-elect. Today, however, Americans are deeply divided. They are no longer modestly divided into Republicans and Democrats, but now into rival pro-Trump and anti-Trump camps. This means the end of the traditional American political parties.

[AKDoug]

From the Euro-journalism effort new europe/Our world comes this look at the politics of today’s America:

https://www.neweurope.eu/article/ame...-civil-war-ii/

Ex.

At present, very few people understand what kind of situation the world is getting to. The general panic caused by the virus was just the excuse to trigger a large-scale evolution, which for the time being remains under the radar, due to the fact that it is only the very beginning. The reasons can be summarised by the unbridgeable social gaps generated by periods of prolonged austerity, extended overregulation, the ever-increasing politically uncontrolled powers of administration and a scarcity of true political leaders.

And

The two big political parties in the United States are close to the end of their shelf-life, and new situations will emerge in the not-so-distant future. Throughout most of their history, Americans were moderately divided between Democrats and Republicans during the election campaign. The day after the election, all Americans were united under the new president-elect. Today, however, Americans are deeply divided. They are no longer modestly divided into Republicans and Democrats, but now into rival pro-Trump and anti-Trump camps. This means the end of the traditional American political parties.

I'm not sure how much that author understands how entrenched the two parties are among active voters. Short of a full on civil war, I don't see either party going anywhere soon. He is also mistaken that Americans were united behind a president. There is plenty of instances in American history where a president was not universally respected.

[kitchen's mill]

It's certainly not a Trump thing.

People don't hate Mr. Trump anymore than conservatives hated Clinton. Mistrust of Obama and the Clinton's is what drove Trump into office.

I'm not saying Pelosi doesn't dislike Trump, the partisan old bat doesn't like any Republican.

But the "hate Trump" mantra seems more a political tool to fire the base.

If likability was the only requirement, that would disqualify most of the jerks in D.C.

[David C.]

From a brief scan, it appears that New Europe and Basil Coronakis are in the tank with the likes of Jean-Claude Juncker and Christine Lagarde and the rest of the EU swamp. I would be more interested in my Labrador's opinion of American politics - at least she is a very good judge of character.

[RJ]

I was born and lived in Germany as a yute, and worked in the EU for five years in the 90s. Most Europeans I ran into are not unlike the blind guy who grabs an elephant by the tail and concludes "This animal is just like a snake!". They have no concept of the vastness and diversity that is America, other than what they see on Hollywood.

[Duke]

Not sure why we continue to give 2 shits about other country’s opinions.


If they all thought we were awesome - it still would mean nothing

[mtnbkr]

They have no concept of the vastness and diversity that is America, other than what they see on Hollywood.

I work for a foreign firm and do most of my work (from home) "overseas" (and travel to the UK twice yearly prior to Covid). I can verify your statement. Folks over there don't realize or appreciate that America is about the size of Europe and each state or region is roughly analogous to a single country in the EU.

Chris

[hufnagel]

Not sure why we continue to give 2 shits about other country’s opinions.


If they all thought we were awesome - it still would mean nothing

I think we're awesome.
I think YOU'RE awesome.
I think most people in here are awesome.


off to play some Dollyrots, since that song is now stuck in my head.

[RJ]

I work for a foreign firm and do most of my work (from home) "overseas" (and travel to the UK twice yearly prior to Covid). I can verify your statement. Folks over there don't realize or appreciate that America is about the size of Europe and each state or region is roughly analogous to a single country in the EU.

Chris

At a high level meeting at MoD London I was a cell phone carrier for once, one of my managers announced ‘My suspenders are killing me’.

Raised eyebrows ensued.



(UK Translation: ‘Suspenders’ = Womens garter belt

[HeavyDuty]

I honestly think Europeans can only have a superficial understanding of our culture, just like we can only be casual observers of theirs. There was one long time US based Guardian correspondent who would regularly infuriate me with his off base pronouncements of the reasons for why certain things happened here, try as he may he could only see us through the lens of his own experiences and identify results, not causes. Thankfully he left the Grauniad and went into academia.